Google removes record piracy links in 2013

Google has been forced to remove over 200 million “pirate” links from its search listings by rights holders in 2013 a four-fold increase over 2012.

Data released as part of Google’s transparency reports, compiled by TorrentFreak, show that at the current rate removal of alleged piracy links, Google will have been forced to delete over 250 million by the end of 2013.

The UK and US recording industry trade bodies BPI and RIAA lead the charge for takedown notices, with a combined 74 million requests so far in 2013.

FilesTube, a Poland-based file hosting site, had the highest level of removals with over 7.6 million links deleted from Google search results. In total, Google was asked to remove links from 295,726 domains by 29,434 copyright holders.